Shas­tri Boodan

Vil­lagers of Mamoral are de­mand­ing more from their po­lit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tives as they strug­gle with bad roads, land­slides, wa­ter short­age, drainage prob­lems and high trans­porta­tion costs.

Agnes Fran­cis, who lives in Mamoral Num­ber #2, said a land­slide that blocked the road for sev­er­al days was made worse when a back­hoe sent by La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro MP Fos­ter Cum­mings showed up on Wednes­day.

“We have no form of rep­re­sen­ta­tive in de area. The peo­ple are fed up and tired, they are com­plain­ing, plead­ing if some­one could hear us and don’t turn a deaf ear. We need some form of help in this area,” she said.

Al­vares Gar­cia, 73, who has lived in the area for more than 50 years, said noth­ing has im­proved in the com­mu­ni­ty but res­i­dents still go out and vote de­spite get­ting bad treat­ment for years.

Gar­cia said res­i­dents have to pay PH taxis as much as $20 to get in and out of the com­mu­ni­ty and some­times taxis are un­avail­able or refuse to work be­cause of the di­lap­i­dat­ed road con­di­tions.

Ear­land Ala­m­o­ny, who sells chataigne and green fig at the side of the road in Mamoral #1, said ac­ci­dents are caused by dri­vers dodg­ing pot­holes and crash­ing in­to each oth­er.

An­oth­er dis­grun­tled res­i­dent, John Boodram, 58, said he has a fair­ly new ve­hi­cle but has al­ready had to re­pair the sus­pen­sion on his Nis­san X Trail. He al­so com­plained that the near­est po­lice sta­tion is in Gran Cou­va but the road to get there is im­pass­able be­cause of land­slides, so res­i­dents are forced to trav­el through Ch­agua­nas and Cou­va to get to Gran Cou­va.

John Leza­ma, coun­cil­lor for the area on the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (CC­TRC), said the road is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the Min­istry of Works but he has had to bear the brunt of com­plaints and in­sults from vil­lagers. He said there was on­ly so much he could do with few re­sources.

Leza­ma said be­cause of land­slides some ar­eas can­not be ac­cessed by emer­gency ve­hi­cles and garbage trucks can­not go in­to some ar­eas.

“Re­cent­ly, a teacher was shot at and the po­lice from Long­denville had to come to the Gran Cou­va be­cause the road was im­pass­able,” he said.

Leza­ma said he wrote to the Min­istry of Works for as­sis­tance but got no re­sponse.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, Cum­mings said he is mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion.

“On­ly to­day I hired a back­hoe at per­son­al ex­pense to bring re­lief to the res­i­dents of Mamoral #2. I have made rep­re­sen­ta­tion to the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port to have re­pairs to the Mamoral Road and I will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion,” he said.